Improved rubber attachment for wash-boards



A UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.. y

' JouN HULL, or VIENNA, NEW JERSEY.

IMPRGVED RUBBER ATTACHMENT FOR WASH-BOARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 10.040, dated September 22, 1863.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN HULL, of Vienna, in the county of Warren and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Rubber Attachment for Wash-Boards; and I do hereby declare that the following is afull, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification in which- Figure l is a longitudinal section of my invention, taken in the line fr, Fig. 2, and iitted in a washtub for use. Fig. 2 is a plan or top view of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the two figures.

This invention consists in attaching a rubber to a wash-board in such a manner that the former may be used much more efficiently on the clothes than the fists or knuckles of the operator, and at the same time admit of being used on either side of the wash-board, and be capable of being dipped in the suds during the process of washing, so as to obtain all the advantages of the exclusive manual rubbing process, and avoid the most laborious part of the same.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct my invention, I will proceed to describe it.

A represents a wash-board, which may be constructed substantially in the ordinary way, and having both sides a a' corrugated or iiuted, so that either may be used as a surface to rub the clothes upon. (See Fig. l.)

B represents the rubber, which maybe constructed of wood, having a sponge or pad, b, attached to its under surface, covered with a piece of suitable cloth,c. This cushioned side of the rubber is the face side, which acts upon the clothes. The rubber is attached by joints d d on its upper surface, to two rods, e e, the outer ends of which are connected to a shaft, f, having tenons g g at its ends that are itted in arms h h, the lower ends of said arms being attached by pivots i to the sides of the lower or immersed end of the wash-board. The rods e e, shaftf, and arms h h form a jointed or flexible frame, which admits of the rubber B being moved up and down over the whole surface of the wash-board, and also ad mits of the rubber being adjusted to either side ofthe wash-board, thelatter being turned l or adjusted so that either side desired to be used may be uppermost. The rubber B extends the whole width of thewash-board--that is to say, of its corrugated or iluted surfaceand the wash-board when in use is tted in a wash-tub in an inclined position, as usual. This flexible frame not only admits of the rubber being used or adjusted at either side of the wash-board, but also admits of it being manipulated so as to have the same movement as that given the 'fists or hands of the operator when used as rubbers, for, in consequence of the connection between the frame and the rubberbeing on theback or upper surface of the latter, it maybe raised and lowered toward and from the corrugated surface of the board, so as to graduate the pressure on the clothes to any extent that may be desired, and it also may, during the rubbing process, be dipped in the suds, as shown in red, Fig. 1, so as to keep the clothes properly saturated. By having the rubber thus free from and not resting on the sides of the wash-boardl a very small quantity of suds or wash-water may be used, and yet the clothes be kept sufticiently wet by using the rubber as a dipper instead of a cup or the hand of the operator, and by thus lessenin g the amount of water or suds there will be less soap required and a consequent corresponding economy in the process. The clothes are placed on the washboard as usual, and they may, while being rubbed, be gradually Worked upward on the wash-board, so as to have the Whole of their surfaces properly acted upon. In short, the clothes may be acted upon by the rubber in in the same way as they are acted upon by the fists, knuckles, or hands of the operatorin the old way. The rubber is grasped by one or both hands ofthe operator, and one side of the wash-board may have finer corrugations a' than the other side, c, in order to suit finer clothes.

When the wash-board is not in use, the rubber B may be drawn up to the upper end of the wash-board, so that the flexible frame will fold down snugly to the wash-board, as shown in blue outline in Fig. 1. I am aware that rubber attachments have been applied to wash-boards in various ways in order to avoid the hand-labor or the exposure of the sts or knuckles to the rubbing process; but, so far as I am aware,fthe rubbers hitherto used have had au arbitrary move ment, being tted in grooves or in aframe, and having a sliding motion in a right line, and therefore not capable of being manipulated as in my improvement, so as to have its pressure graduated on the clothes as may be required, and asis done when the hands or knuckles are used as the rubber. This is a very important feature, the absence of which, together With the dipping movement of the rubber, has prevented the previous rubber attachments from being generally adopted.

I do not claim,broadly, a rubber attached 0r applied to a Wash-board irrespective of the means employed for such purpose; but,

Havingthus described my invention, what I do claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Attaching the rubber B by means of the joints d d on its upper surface to Bthe Washboard A by means of the jointed or flexible frame formed of the rods e e, shaft f, and arms h h, when the frame is pivoted or jointed to the lower end of the wash-board, as herein shown and described.

JOHN HULL.

Witnesses J AMES V. HAY, HENRY J. HULL. 

